1. Leveraging the Placebo Effect to Improve the Perceived Application Performance
Vikas Chakravarthy Srinivas, Associate
Cognizant Technology Solutions

2. As humans we are influenced by our perception of things.
Abstract
As humans we are influenced by our perception of things.
This paper deals with techniques which plays on the user perception of things to provide a rich user experience.
What is it?
Why do it?
How do we do it?
What can we expect to see?
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3. What would you do? Open Question? Scenario:
Old heavily used lift in 14 story building.
Cannot be shutdown even for day
No mechanical solutions implementable.
People complaining it is slow and wasting time.
What would you do?
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4. This solution forms the base of this paper..
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5. Can we use it in our field?
How does it work?
What is this?
What can we do?
Can we use it in our field?

6. What really happened here?
The PLACEBO Effect
World War II, Dr.Henry Beecher ran out of pain-killing morphine. Told the soldiers that he was giving them morphine, But he was actually infusing them with a saline solution. But they were relieved of pain.
What really happened here?
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7. Placebo Triggers?
Certain actions impacting the sensory organs induces certain emotions in us and influences our perception.

8. Can we use this to performance testing? Age old marketing tactics!

9. Trigger 1: Progress Bars
Any activity happening on the screen during wait
Statistics say that having these progress bars and completeness meter increase survey satisfaction, respondent engagement, and increase in attention retention by nearly 75%.

10. Trigger 2: Idiot Buttons
The placebo-refresh allays any fears. It tells the user that there is no more information to come. It provides relief over waiting, and provides a sense of control to the user’s feed where there isn’t any.

11. Trigger 3: Selective Attention
Experiment conducted by Simmons:1999 – we only focus on what is important to us. Monkey Business Illusion
So, focus on what is important to customers. – Selective Attention!

12. Trigger 4: Influence of Colors
L’oreal:
Black and white colour scheme with a purple overlay which most preferred by their target audience, women. – Induces excitement and influences sales
Relaxed and less agitated people perceive performance differently
Blue hues and pastel colours help keep people relaxed
Red or bright yellow colours which trigger excitement

13. Please wait while we create your personalized feed..
Trigger 5: Personalization
Have you seen this?
Please wait while we create your personalized feed..
Personalization/Customization
Making one feel special!
Don’t mind waiting the little extra time!
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14. Trigger 6: Music on Hold For AI with no UI  Go to the basics  Music
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15. Without Placebo Triggers
Validate Improvement
via A/B Testing
Without Placebo Triggers
With Placebo Triggers

16. Improved Customer Retentivity
Benefits
Cheap
Improved Customer Retentivity
Faster Time to Market
Easy

17. Improved Customer Retentivity
Not a substitute for Performance Engineering!
To be used as an accompaniment only!
Cheap
Improved Customer Retentivity
Faster Time to Market
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18. References & Appendix
Chopra, P. (2010, November 24). multivariate-testing-in-action-five-simple-steps-to-increase-conversion-rates. Retrieved from SmashingMagazine:
J Simons, D. (Director). (2010). The Monkey Business Illusion [Motion Picture]. Retrieved from
Kadlec, T. (2010, December 02). the color of speed. Retrieved from
Lambert, John Pack. (2016, October 10). Henry_K._Beecher. Retrieved from Wikipedia:
McGough, O. (2014, August 26). faking-interaction-placebo-ux-design. Retrieved from
Myers, B. A. (1985). The importance of percent-done progress indicators for computer-human interfaces. CHI '85 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems,
Reviewed by Melinda Ratini, D. M. (2016, February 23). WebMD Medical Reference. Retrieved from WebMD:
Siegel, D. ( 2008). Mindsight Oxford. Retrieved from Changing Minds:
Zhang, T. (2013, March 20). The Progress Bar. Retrieved from Kissmetrics Blog:

19. Author Biography
Vikas Chakravarthy Srinivas has over 7 years of IT experience in roles ranging from performance test engineer to project lead for a variety of BFSI clients. Currently, Vikas is a core member of Cognizant’s Non Functional Testing Centre of Excellence working on cutting edge technologies such as IoT, AI, micro-services and chat-bots. Vikas has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science engineering from SASTRA University (India), and MS in Software Engineering from Cranfield University (UK). He can be reached at com

20. Thank You!!!